New interview with the developers

XAleX360

Since it's a rival website I'll just say that it is called MMO web site.

The good news is, closed beta is approaching: they have one scheduled for April, another for May and seemingly Open Beta for June.

Fingers crossed! 

Ballistika

Go read this interview with the Product Manager of Grimlands. Take a look, many questions about Grimlands will be answered.: http://news.mmosite.com/content/q/2012-04-17/mmosite_interview_for_the_post_apocalyptic_mmo_grimlands_1.shtml

XAleX360

Yeah, well...As I said, I didn't link it because MMOSite is likely a rival website to MMORPG.com.

 

But that is the interview, yes.

DarkPony

The linking to other mmo sites isn't much of an issue. As long as we discuss it in here they will spare us :P

On topic:

Looks real interesting. Kind of an unknown dev but it seems they are owned by a big EU media company so hopefully this won't go the "release before finished" route like the average promising indy sandbox.

Looks a lot like Fallen Earth in fact, setting and feature wise. Both post-apoc, both open world, both shooters, both having extensive crafting and town claimage as interesting points ...

So if there's one question missing in that interview it would be "How will this be different than Fallen Earth?".

 

XAleX360

Well, the games certainly share quite a few elements in the design itself, however I was able to find a few differences as well.

• 
  Grimlands touts an influence system related to world objectives (that can be controlled by clans) with bonuses, I don't think FE has this; plus, Grimlands also enables players to upgrade buildings in said outposts to increase bonuses.
• 
  The progression system in Grimlands seems very similar to Darkfall, in that you can only get better at something while using the corresponding weapon/skill; I only played a bit of FE, but from the sounds of it you can freely adjust your skill points earned through experience gained in whatever way. Also in Grimlands there are overarching categories of skills, for example "semi-automatic weapons" that contain "pistol, rifle, etc.", which again is found in Darkfall. Seemingly there is also no hardcap, but if you use a type of skill for a while some other types of skills will decay.
• 
  NPCs AI is also said to be quite advanced in that they will act accordingly of their weapon setup and skills, coordinating attacks and retreat between them, which leads to the fact that player will have a noise/visibility system on the HUD like in a stealth game.
• 
  Ultimately there are also dungeon instances and raids according to this interview, I don't think there are any of those in FE.

 

But yes, as I said most of the other things are found in FE as well. Hopefully the moment-to-moment gameplay will be funnier thanks to better animations and more meaningful shooting system, this alone would make Grimlands a much more enjoyable version of FE.

DarkPony

Originally posted by XAleX360

Well, the games certainly share quite a few elements in the design itself, however I was able to find a few differences as well.

• 
  Grimlands touts an influence system related to world objectives (that can be controlled by clans) with bonuses, I don't think FE has this; plus, Grimlands also enables players to upgrade buildings in said outposts to increase bonuses.
• 
  The progression system in Grimlands seems very similar to Darkfall, in that you can only get better at something while using the corresponding weapon/skill; I only played a bit of FE, but from the sounds of it you can freely adjust your skill points earned through experience gained in whatever way. Also in Grimlands there are overarching categories of skills, for example "semi-automatic weapons" that contain "pistol, rifle, etc.", which again is found in Darkfall. Seemingly there is also no hardcap, but if you use a type of skill for a while some other types of skills will decay.
• 
  NPCs AI is also said to be quite advanced in that they will act accordingly of their weapon setup and skills, coordinating attacks and retreat between them, which leads to the fact that player will have a noise/visibility system on the HUD like in a stealth game.
• 
  Ultimately there are also dungeon instances and raids according to this interview, I don't think there are any of those in FE.

 

But yes, as I said most of the other things are found in FE as well. Hopefully the moment-to-moment gameplay will be funnier thanks to better animations and more meaningful shooting system, this alone would make Grimlands a much more enjoyable version of FE.

Thanks for the answer. Good list.

One thing though: FE in fact did have town capping, controlling and bonusses gained for that but it was tied in to the "faction wheel": every player was fighting personally for one of the npc factions and fought over towns with players of the same faction to control it for that faction. On paper a very fun set up but in practice it ended up feeling very artificial: to get most out of a character and unlock all useful skills and gear, you needed to gain influence with multiple factions which meant "grinding the faction wheel"; one day you'll be killing faction A to gain inf with faction C, the next you'll be killing faction C to gain inf with faction E, etc.

Anyway, even if this game will be similar to FE in many points, it probably will be very different. There was no upgrading buildings, for one, and the capturable objectives were just a handful. It felt more like a post apoc themepark than a true sandbox even though crafting was very well implemented. I also hope GL combat will be a little more tactical, weapon range, reaction speed, keeping a low profile, etc.

I'll keep a close eye on this. And more people should. It's a shame that games like this get so little attention. I love sandboxes and I love post-apoc. Every game that combines those two is on the top of my watch list

 

XAleX360

Yes, I hope it does well too. Otherland looks interesting as well. 

 

There are many interesting online games coming out, it's going to be a great year for PC!

cichicean

Downloading closed beta version! YAY!